Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait in talks to acquire retail Islamic bank Ithmaar

Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait is in preliminary talks to explore a potential acquisition of retail Islamic bank Ithmaar.

The Bahrain-based BBK said in a statement on Wednesday (Aug 26) the acquisition will also include specific assets of Ithmaar Bank Capital, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Ithmaar Holding that is also the parent of Ithmaar Bank.

Acquiring fellow Bahrain-based Ithmaar Bank will give BBK a turnkey, full service Islamic banking solution, said BBK.

BBK chairperson Murad Ali Murad said the bank has been exploring opportunities to expand and diversify, particularly in Islamic banking businesses.

This acquisition move is in line with the current banks M&A trend in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region.

The most recent announcement was in June when Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank said it was in talks for a potential merger with Samba Financial Group.

GCC banks that have completed or advanced M&A deals with Shariah-compliant components include National Bank of Bahrain acquiring Bahrain Islamic Bank, and Oman Arab Bank’s acquisition of Alizz Islamic Bank, which created a bank holding 3.2 billion rials ($8.32 billion) in assets.

Prior to this, Dubai Islamic Bank completed its acquisition of Noor Bank, resulting in around $75 billion in merged assets.

Kuwait Finance House said in April its deal to acquire Bahrain’s Ahli United was temporarily suspended because of the disruption of work due to the pandemic. A KFH-Ahli United merged bank will have assets of around $101 billion.

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